Systems and methods for extension of server management functions

• US 8,966,026 B2
• Filed: 05/21/2013
• Issued: 02/24/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Phung, Hai T., Narayanan, Anand, Stracener, Charles D., Prabhu, Pritesh F., Rao, Sanjay, Zhang, Weijia
• Primary Examiner(s): Donabed, Ninos
• Application Number:
  US13/898,991
• Publication Number:
  US 20130254358A1
• Time in Patent Office: 644 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 709/220
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44505 Configuring for program initiating, e.g. using registry, configuration files
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44526 Plug-ins; Add-ons
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0809 Plug-and-play configuration

Abstract

Systems and methods that may be implemented to provide a plug-in architecture framework to allow extension of server management functionalities in a unified extension firmware interface (“UEFI”) environment using available remote access controller memory space. The disclosed systems and methods may be implemented to provide a hardware and software interface to allow use of a plug-in framework in the embedded system management that may be run under the BIOS firmware and the UEFI environment. The disclosed systems and methods may also be implemented to provide a server management architecture that may be modified and enhanced over time, and/or that may also be employed to extend availability of the server management framework to third parties, as well as to extend support to original equipment manufacturer (“OEM”) servers.

Claims

1. An information handling system, comprising:

at least one processing device;

one or more external input/output (I/O) interfaces coupled to the at least one processing device;

a remote access controller coupled to the external one or more I/O interfaces and further coupled to the at least one processing device via a communication bus;

persistent storage coupled to the remote access controller with the remote access controller being coupled between the persistent storage and the at least one processing device and one or more external I/O interfaces, the remote access controller being programmed to manage the persistent storage and the remote access controller and the persistent storage each being internal components of the information handling system;

a server management framework present on the persistent storage, the server management framework including one or more server management functions that each include a configuration layer, the server management framework being configured to load the one or more server management functions on the at least one processing device of the information handling system; and

system BIOS firmware residing on the persistent storage, the server management framework being configured to run under a unified extensible firmware interface (“

UEFI”

) environment provided by the BIOS firmware;

wherein the server management framework is configured to access a configuration plug-in from one or more external devices across the one or more external I/O interfaces, the configuration plug-in including a configuration layer;

wherein the server management framework is configured to extend the configuration layer of the server management framework across the one or more external I/O interfaces to include the configuration layer of the configuration plug-in; and

wherein the server management framework is configured to then load the one or more server management functions on the at least one processing device with the one or more server management functions extended to include the configuration layer of the configuration plug-in.

2. The information handling system of claim 1, wherein the server management framework includes a plug-in registration service configured to access a plug-in registration of the configuration plug-in from one or more external devices across the one or more external I/O interfaces and to extend the configuration layer of the server management framework across the one or more external I/O interfaces to include the configuration layer of the configuration plug-in.

3. The information handling system of claim 1, wherein the persistent storage that is coupled to the remote access controller is divided into a plurality of memory partitions.

4. The information handling system of claim 1, further comprising a system motherboard;

and wherein the remote access controller and the persistent storage are embedded internal components on the motherboard of the information handling system.

5. The information handling system of claim 1, wherein the one or more server management functions include at least one of server updates for firmware of the information handling system, server updates for BIOS of the information handling system, upgrades for one or more drivers of the information handling system, server configuration changes or modifications for the information handling system, programming for deployment or installation of an operating system on an information handling system;

one or more diagnostic functions to monitor the health status of the information handling system, or a combination thereof.

6. The information handling system of claim 1, wherein the one or more server management functions comprise a graphical user interface (“

GUI”

) XML profile and GUI processing module that allow a user to control enablement and disablement of other server management functions.

19. The information handling system of claim 1, wherein the one or more server management functions include programming for deployment or installation of an operating system on the information handling system.

7. A computing system, comprising:

a host information handling system that comprises;

at least one processing device internal to the host information handling system,

one or more external input/output (I/O) interfaces,

a remote access controller coupled between the one or more external I/O interfaces and the at least one processing device via an internal communication bus,

persistent storage coupled to the remote access controller with the remote access controller being coupled between the persistent storage and the at least one processing device and one or more external I/O interfaces, the remote access controller being programmed to manage the persistent storage and the remote access controller and the persistent storage each being internal components of the information handling system,

a host server management framework present on the persistent storage, the server management framework including one or more server management functions that each include a configuration layer, the server management framework being configured to load the one or more server management functions on the at least one processing device of the information handling system,

system BIOS firmware residing on the persistent storage, the host server management framework being configured to run under a unified extensible firmware interface (“

UEFI”

) environment provided by the BIOS firmware; and

one or more remote external devices coupled to the one or more external I/O interfaces of the host information handling system;

wherein the host server management framework is configured to access a remote configuration plug-in from the one or more remote external devices across the one or more external I/O interfaces, the remote configuration plug-in including a configuration layer;

wherein the host server management framework is configured to extend the configuration layer of the host server management framework across the one or more external I/O interfaces to include the configuration layer of the remote configuration plug-in; and

wherein the host server management framework is configured to then load the one or more server management functions on the at least one processing device with the one or more server management functions extended to include the configuration layer of the remote configuration plug-in.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the host server management framework includes a plug-in registration service configured to access a plug-in registration of the remote configuration plug-in from one or more remote external devices across the one or more external I/O interfaces to extend the configuration layer of the host server management framework across the one or more external I/O interfaces to include the remote configuration layer of the configuration plug-in.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the persistent storage that is coupled to the remote access controller is divided into a plurality of memory partitions.

10. The system of claim 7, wherein the host information handling system further comprises a system motherboard;

and wherein the remote access controller and the persistent storage are embedded internal components on the motherboard of the host information handling system.

11. The system of claim 7, wherein the one or more server management functions include at least one of server updates for firmware of the host information handling system, server updates for BIOS of the host information handling system, upgrades for one or more drivers of the host information handling system, server configuration changes or modifications for the host information handling system, programming for deployment or installation of an operating system on the host information handling system;

one or more diagnostic functions to monitor the health status of the host information handling system, or a combination thereof.

12. The system of claim 7, wherein the one or more server management functions comprise a graphical user interface (“

GUI”

) XML profile and GUI processing module that allow a user to control enablement and disablement of other server management functions.

20. The system of claim 7, wherein the one or more server management functions include programming for deployment or installation of an operating system on the host information handling system.

13. A method of extending server management functions in an information handling system comprising:

providing a host information handling system that comprises;

at least one processing device internal to the host information handling system,

one or more external input/output (I/O) interfaces,

a remote access controller coupled between the one or more external I/O interfaces and the at least one processing device via an internal communication bus,

persistent storage coupled to the remote access controller with the remote access controller being coupled between the persistent storage and the at least one processing device and one or more external I/O interfaces, the remote access controller being programmed to manage the persistent storage and the remote access controller and the persistent storage each being internal components of the information handling system,

a host server management framework present on the persistent storage, the host server management framework including one or more server management functions that each include a configuration layer, and

system BIOS firmware residing on the persistent storage;

coupling the one or more external I/O interfaces to one or more devices that are external to the host information handling system;

running the host server management framework under a unified extensible firmware interface (“

UEFI”

) environment provided by the BIOS firmware;

using the host server management framework to load the one or more server management functions on the at least one processing device of the host information handling system;

using the host server management framework to access a configuration plug-in across the one or more external I/O interfaces from the one or more external devices, the configuration plug-in including a configuration layer;

using the host server management framework to extend the configuration layer of the host server management framework across the one or more external I/O interfaces to include the configuration layer of the configuration plug-in; and

using the host server management framework to then load the one or more server management functions on the at least one processing device with the host one or more server management functions extended to include the configuration layer of the configuration plug-in.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the server management framework includes a plug-in registration service;

and wherein the method further comprises using the plug-in registration service to;

access a plug-in registration of the remote configuration plug-in from the one or more remote external devices across the one or more external I/O interfaces; and

extend the configuration layer of the host server management framework across the one or more external I/O interfaces to include the configuration layer of the remote configuration plug-in.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the persistent storage that is coupled to the remote access controller is divided into a plurality of memory partitions.

16. The method of claim 13, further comprising providing a system motherboard as a part of the information handling system;

and providing the remote access controller and the persistent storage as embedded internal components on the motherboard.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein the host one or more server management functions include at least one of server updates for firmware of the host information handling system, server updates for BIOS of the host information handling system, upgrades for one or more drivers of the host information handling system, server configuration changes or modifications for the host information handling system, programming for deployment or installation of an operating system on the host information handling system;

one or more diagnostic functions to monitor the health status of the host information handling system, or a combination thereof.

18. The method of claim 13, wherein the one or more server management functions comprise a graphical user interface (“

GUI”

) XML profile and GUI processing module; and

wherein the method further comprises using the GUI XML profile to enable or disable other server management functions.

21. The method of claim 13, wherein the one or more server management functions include programming for deployment or installation of an operating system on the host information handling system.